Is it really necessary to send humans to those places just to get the knock-on benefits? Couldn’t we do those things directly, without going there?
It seems to me that, today, those who have the money to spend on these endeavors would only do so if there were perceived short-term benefits to themselves. That means they plan to exploit the resources, or increase their own power somehow.
I know the good engineers that make this happen are doing it for the challenge and in the pursuit of knowledge, and I know that’s why we poors support it, but that doesn’t “pay the bills.” What is the motivation behind the money? Why are they really doing this?
Resources that are minimally available on Earth.
Example: The moon has Helium-3 and is close (in comparison to other celestial bodies).
Is it economically viable? Is it ethical? Ehhhhhhhh. I would say no, but Elon “Head Up His Own Ass” Musk would disagree.
Probably just as ethical as Europeans coming to North America and taking over native land and exploiting it’s resources for personal gain as the cost of the environment and the people already living there, but ethics gets tricky when you really think about it.
It’s much more ethical than that. There are no native beings living on the Moon, and no real environmental concerns. Mars is slightly more complicated because it is possible there was once life there, and perhaps some microbes survive somewhere, but that’s unlikely.
I think you would be ignoring the ethics of the energy used and costs of getting off the planet as well. May be more ethical and cheaper to take those funds and reinvest in making the earth a better place rather than leaving it.